“Gravity” continued to exert a dominant pull on the box office this weekend while a new movie about Wikileaks proved about as popular with the public as the organization is with the U.S. government.

With ticket sales off only 28% from the prior weekend, “Gravity” grossed an estimated $31 million on its third weekend in U.S. and Canadian theaters, making it once again an easy No. 1. The 3-D science-fiction film starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney has ridden its must-see status to $171 million at the domestic box office and $114.2 million internationally so far, making it a huge hit for Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros.

Its closest competition this weekend was “Captain Phillips,” another movie benefiting from strong word-of-mouth. On its second weekend, ticket sales for the Tom Hanks thriller declined only 33% and the Sony Pictures Entertainment release brought in $17.3 million, boosting its domestic total to $53.3 million.

Close behind was “Carrie,” a remake of the 1976 horror movie based on Stephen King’s book. It opened to an unimpressive $17 million. The film cost close to $30 million and was co-financed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and Sony, which also handled distribution and marketing duties.

Aging action stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone co-starred in a movie for the first time, but it was apparently too late to get audiences excited. Their thriller “Escape Plan,” which cost about $50 million to make, opened to a weak $9.8 million. It was financed by distributor Summit Entertainment, owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., together with Emmett/Furla Films.

But the weekend’s largest commercial failure by far was “The Fifth Estate,” about Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. With just $1.7 million, it posted the lowest opening of the year for any film at more than 1,200 locations — “The Fifth Estate” was at 1,769 — as mixed reviews and the draw of “Gravity” and “Capt. Phillips” kept the movie’s target adult audience away.

It was financed by DreamWorks SKG together with Participant Media for about $26 million and released by Walt Disney Co.

The script for “The Fifth Estate” was posted on Wikileaks and criticized by Mr. Assange as inaccurate before the film opened. The @Wikileaks Twitter account has been spending much of the past week bashing the film, and is crowing about the movie’s box office failure now.